Krugman in Berlin

Last Thursday, I went to see Paul Krugman at Freie Universität Berlin, for a talk on his new book “Conscience of a Liberal.” Speaking before a large crowd inside the Kade Auditorium, the economist and NYT-columnist proved to be able to blend politics and economics while appealing to an academic crowd.

To prove his importance in the American media sphere, the Graduate School of North American Studies introduced him by playing a clip of Stephen Colbert, ripping Krugman for releasing his book the same day as the host of the popular Comedy Central show “The Colbert Report.”

In his talk, Krugman highlighted the growing gap within the American class society, and blamed it mostly on, what he called, “Movement Conservatism.” Comparing wages of Ford workers in the 70s and 80s to Wal-Mart workers today, Krugman concluded that their salary had been cut in half, whereas the C.E.O was making three times as much. Blaming the Bush administration for continuing the agenda of War on Terror, he called their strategy “Weapons of Mass Distraction,” and seemed hopeful about a change of politics at Pennsylvania Avenue in the near future.

Looking ahead towards the general election and the electoral map, the former Princeton professor pointed towards the South and its existence as Republican stronghold. When President Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965, he instantly told aides that the Democrats had just lost the entire South for decades to come. His theory proven right over time, Krugman called it the “Big Switch,” but added that a changing electorate would reverse this trend in the upcoming years.

As he answered questions from the audience, Krugman was not shy of using memorable moments to make his arguments. Talking about the importance of the internet, he reminded the audience of the “macaca moment,” which cost Senator George Allen of Virginia his bid for reelection. The involved student later applied to Journalism schools, only writing three words on his essay of why he should be accepted: “I am macaca.”

While in Berlin, Krugman wrote his weekly Op-Ed column, and an entry on his blog, named after his newest book. Interestingly enough, the German title of his book is called “After Bush” - a translation Krugman did not seem to happy about.

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Clinton, Obama and that day in 1968

Hillary Clinton raised quiet some eyebrows, when she said the following in an interview with the editorial board of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader in South Dakota.

My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right?

We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it. There’s lots of speculation about why it is.

Sadly, this was not the first time she mentioned the assassination of Bobby Kennedy in respect to her continuing fight for the party’s presidential nomination. Her latest remarks set of a storm of rants around the media sphere, which culminated in a special comment by Keith Olbermann on his show “Countdown:”

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What’s a world without reporters

By looking at the rise of pundits during the 2008 elections, Columbia Journalism Review asks frightening, yet timely question: Who will tell us? “What one can say definitively is that conventional wisdom is vulnerable in large part because it is often based on imperfect and incomplete information; and that the source of the vast majority of that information—reporting by mainstream news outlets—is under assault as never before.”

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Partisan Pundits are the new attraction

Writing about Karl Rove’s new job as TV analyst on FOX News, and columnist for Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, the New York Times cites Broder’s concerns: ” ‘One day they are calling journalists to write favorably about their prominent political patrons,’ Mr. Broder said, ‘and the next minute they are sitting at the table with journalists and indistinguishable from the journalists.’”

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Wright and the Press

Rev. Jeremiah Wright had three public appearances in four days, after he stood silent for many weeks in which clips of his sermons were played up and down the TV-, radio- and internet sphere. With his latest speech, at the National Press Club in Washington D.C., and the following press conference, he once again stirred up a lot of controversy.

Especially the critique of his speech in the print media on Tuesday was extraordinary. Not only took most newspapers time, and a lot of space, to lay out their opinion, but started to attack each other in the meantime.

Here is a list of links about the topic:

Alessandra Stanley: “Not Speaking for Obama, Pastor Speaks for Himself, at Length” (NYT)

Mr. Wright, Senator Barack Obama’s former pastor, was cocky, defiant, declamatory, inflammatory and mischievous, but most of all, he was all over the place, performing a television triathlon of interview, lecture and live news conference that pushed Mr. Obama aside and placed himself front and center in the presidential election campaign.

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Momentum changes quickly

In her NYT column, Maureen Dowd looks at he changed appearances of the two remaining Democratic candidates. “A man at a sports bar in Latrobe, Pa., advised Obama, ‘Get some sleep, Barack, you look like you’re tired, man.’ When the candidate noted he’s been running for president for 15 months, the guy offered another tip: ‘You need a drink.’”

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